


Somebody That I Used To Know

by JemWithA_J



Category: Marcella (TV)
Genre: F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 08:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17895302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JemWithA_J/pseuds/JemWithA_J
Summary: Set after the events of Series 2 episode 7 when Tim is suspended from work. Marcella needs to know what is going on and why the man she thought she knew so well suddenly feels like a stranger to her.





	Somebody That I Used To Know

As Marcella reached the door to his flat she paused. She was angry with him. Angrier than she had ever been before. Yet seeing him carted off out of his office the other day like some sort of criminal unnerved her. When Rav came back from finding out what had happened, he told them that Tim had been suspended, pending investigation into misappropriation of funds from Maya Whitman’s foundation. Part of her felt like laughing. She told him only the other week that ambition is a bitch and that it would come back to bite him. But there was something niggling at her that not all of this rang true. Tim isn’t stupid. Marcella had known him long enough to know that he is a brilliant police officer. Rav may have been surprised that Tim got DCI instead of him, but she wasn’t. Because she knew that he was a solid, reliable presence in the team who would strive for justice and not stop until he got it. And the Tim she knew would never get himself caught up in anything like this. Yet he had been acting so strangely recently. His whole involvement in the Whitman Foundation felt odd to Marcella since he told her that he had become the Chairman. Tim hates paperwork. As much as he wanted the DCI job he told her that he wasn’t looking forward to the masses of paperwork and meetings that went with it. So that fact that he chose to give himself more crap to sign with this role within the Foundation never quite sat right with her. 

Then there was the whole thing with Maya Whitman herself. Marcella knew they had agreed that this was only meant to be a casual thing, her and him. But as the months passed she had found herself becoming more and more comfortable with him and wondering if, maybe, they could make this work. So finding out about him and her was like a punch to the stomach. After everything with Jason; Tim knowing what he did and how much it hurt her, she never thought he would go and do the same thing. Shows how much of an idiot she was to trust them. Tim told her to her face that he wasn’t sleeping with her. And for a moment he looked so genuine that she almost believed him. Yet the deleted texts, the fact he was waiting for her at the lift the other day, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, not to mention the fact that she was all over him in his office told Marcella a different story. But that wasn’t the reason she was there, at his door right now. She was there because she’d be damned if he’s going to let an impeccable fifteen year Police career go down the drain for...god knows what. Shaking her head at his utter stupidity, she pressed the doorbell. A few seconds passed before she heard footsteps coming to the door and then the click of the lock as he opened it. The first thing she noticed was that he was unshaven, which was unheard of since he became DCI. The light smattering of stubble across his jaw brought back a sense of familiarity about him to her. He was dressed in joggers with a tshirt and from the dark circles under his eyes Marcella took a guess that he hadn’t been sleeping. He didn’t speak, so she did.

“Can I come in?”

He looked at her silently for a few moments before stepping to the side to let her in. Marcella walked past him down the hallway and into his usually immaculate living room which currently looked like a doss house. Half eaten cartons of takeaway and numerous empty bottles of beer scattered the coffee table, the TV on in the background blaring out the news. The last few days worth of newspapers piled up on a chair, the latest one open on a page where the headline read _‘Investigation Into Police Detective Who Stole From Charity Continues’_. Marcella closed the newspaper and grabbed the remote, switching off the TV before turning back to face him as he arrived in the room. She folded her arms and looked at him and he looked back at her silently for a few moments before opening his mouth to speak.

“Marcella...I…”

His voice was so pathetic that a tiny part of her could even feel sorry for him. If she wasn’t so pissed off.

“If you’re expecting pity, Tim, then I am the wrong person to try it on with. I’ve not come here to hold your hand or kiss your arse. I’ve come here because I want some answers. And you are going to bloody well give them to me.” 

He stared at her. He was used to hearing her speak like this to suspects. Her harsh tone and abrasive manner were well known throughout the station. But she had never spoken to him like this. She’d never had to. Until now. With a sigh he sat down on the sofa and put his head in his hands. Marcella took a seat next to him. There was so much space between them, which felt odd after their closeness of the last few months. But at this moment in time she could hardly bear to look at him, let alone touch him.

“I didn’t do it.”

His voice was quiet, a defeatist tone to it which was unusual to her ears.

“You need to talk to me, Tim.” Marcella said, trying to make her own tone a little softer, “You’re running out of friends at a rate of knots here. If you want to stand any chance of getting your career back on track then you’d better start explaining yourself to me so I can try and help you out of whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“It’s a fucking joke…”

He laughed, shaking his head, and as he turned towards her she noticed the tears in his eyes. She had never once seen Tim even close to tears. They had worked together on horrific cases over the years, cases that had seen even the toughest coppers break down. Tim was always so strong. So resilient. At least in front of people. So for him to be sat here in front of her on the verge of tears unsettled her. She felt like she wanted to move closer to him, but she was still far too confused and too annoyed to even consider it. Even so, she folded her hands in her lap to stop herself from wanting to reach out to him.

“I keep thinking that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and this will all have been a horrible dream. But then I wake up and I turn on the TV or open the newspaper and it’s there, staring me in the face. So I’m sitting here, day after day, wondering what the fuck has happened to my life. I’ve got lawyers coming and telling me what to say and what not to say and what my options are and I feel like I want to scream…”

A tear fell down his cheek and he roughly brushed it away before turning to Marcella.

“She’s setting me up.” He said, his eyes fixed on hers, “Maya…”

“What, your bit on the side?” Marcella retorted, raising an eyebrow. She wasn’t going to bring it up but the anger was bubbling up inside of her and she couldn’t help herself, “The honeymoon period well and truly over then is it?”

He looked at her open mouthed, shaking his head.

“Marcella, please! For the love of God, I didn’t sleep with her! I’m not having an affair with her. Why won’t you believe me?”

“Well that little scene in your office on the day all of this happened for a start! She seemed very cozy with you. Plus the fact that she fucking told me herself that she was sleeping with you, there’s a major hint…”

“SHE kissed me!” He interrupted, throwing his hands through his hair as he got to his feet, “SHE told you! Can’t you see Marcella? Are you telling me that a Detective Inspector of your calibre cannot see what is happening here?”

“Don’t you fucking dare take the piss out of me Tim Williamson,” Marcella growl, getting to her feet too, “Affairs aren’t one fucking sided! It didn’t look like you tried to push her away when she wanted to plant one on you!”

“I am not having an affair, Marcella…” He said, and Marcella could hear the struggle he was having trying to calm himself down, “I was working undercover.”

His last statement strook her dumb and she closed her mouth mid retort.

“You were what?” She managed eventually as he sighed, sitting back down again.

“The Foundation. Maya. Vince. There is something dodgy going on. Someone I used to work with came to me just after I was made DCI. They said that Vince Whitman was hiring young people on these illegal zero hour contracts and he was finding some of them through the Foundation. Vulnerable sixteen and seventeen year olds who needed money so were easy to exploit. I wanted the chance to get back out in the field again. Prove to everyone that I was the right choice for DCI. So I decided to do this off my own back. And the easiest way to get close to them was through her…”

He broke off, looking down at the ground. Marcella still couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing and she didn’t feel able to speak yet so she sat in silence until he spoke again.

“She’s a flirtatious woman in an unhappy marriage.” he said, his voice quiet. “So I flirted. I made her feel wanted. I...kissed her a few times. But I swear to you Marcella, I never slept with her. And it killed me every time I had to act like I wanted her because all I wanted was you…”

His voice broke as he looked up at her, those unfamiliar tears in his blue eyes once more.

“I was so close. I almost had everything I needed. Then you told me that Vince had accused me of sleeping with Maya and I knew that I had to get this thing finished before things got out of hand. I should have told you the full truth then...I know that. But Vince is so dangerous and I didn’t want to drag you into this thing, knowing what he could do. So I tried to make you believe me that I wasn’t sleeping with her. I hoped I could make you trust me on it. Just until it was all over and I could explain properly. But you didn’t. You were so angry I couldn’t bear it. And then that day. That day Maya came to my office. She wanted me to sign some documents. You walked in and she kissed me. I wasn’t expecting it. And I didn’t want you to see it as it I knew it would just throw flames on the fire. I wanted to get rid of her. So I signed the documents without even reading them. Fuck…”

He buried his head in his hands again and this time Marcella could see by the shake of his shoulders that he was crying. She swallowed. She didn’t know what the hell to expect when she visited him tonight but this revelation definitely wasn’t one of them. Yet thinking back knowing what she knew now, she could see that a lot of what he said made some sense. She slowly moved across the sofa towards him. Despite knowing him for over fifteen years and despite the intimacy of the past few months she wasn’t sure how to be around him right now. She gently reached out a hand to his hair, stroking her hand through it as his sobs subside. Eventually he looked up at her with red rimmed eyes.

“I’ve been so stupid, Marcella,” he whispered, “And now I’ve lost everything. My career. My livelihood. You. And it’s likely that I’ll end up in prison…” 

He took a deep breath before burying his head in his hands again.

“No…”

Marcella said strongly and as he looked up at her, she grabbed hold of his face.

“You have been a fucking idiot Tim Williamson. But I am not going to let that silly blonde tart get away with wrecking your career. You’re too good a copper for that. And there is no way in hell you are going to prison.”

He looked at her, his eyes looking straight into hers.

“And you?” He whispered, “Have I lost you?”

As she looked at him, she tried to remember what they had been through together. How he was there for her through all the stuff with Jason, how he calmed her down when she was on the verge of fugue after fugue. How she missed the comforting warmth of his body next to hers as she tried to sleep on a night. And she realised that despite all of this, she still cared about him. Brushing the rogue tear from his cheek, she leaned in and kissed him. After what felt like an age they broke apart and she pulled him in close to her, close enough so that she could whisper in his ear.

“No more chances. If you think Maya Whitman can ruin you, then you haven’t come across me yet. Embezzlement is a breeze compared to what I could bloody do you for. Remember that Williamson.”

She kissed his hair as she broke away, grinning at the look of confused shock on his face.

“Now. Have you got any more beers or did you finish the full case in your last few days of drunken stupor?”


End file.
